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Utah's  Minimum  Wage  Law 
for  Females 


*Passed  by  the  State  Legislature  of  1913. 
Became  Effective  May  13,  1913. 


Paper  read  by  H.  T.  HAINES,  Commissioner  of  Immigra- 
tion, Labor  and  Statistics  of  Utah,  before  the  National 
Convention  of  the  Association  of  Governmental  Labor 
Officials  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  at  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  on  June  9,  1914. 


Utah's  arbitrary  minimum  wage  law  for  women  and  girls 
has  now  been  in  operation  for  one  full  year,  a  period  long 
enough  to  form  a  partial  conclusion  of  the  merits,  in  one 
State  at  least,  of  a  class  of  labor  laws  that  is  now  uppermost 
in  the  minds  of  many  students  of  important  social  and  eco- 
nomic problems. 

Before  entering  into  a  statement  of  the  physical  opera- 
tions of  the  law  and  its  practical  results  so  far  as  may  yet  be 
determined,  I  desire  to  first  briefly  call  your  attention  to  the 
ways  and  means  by  which  Utah,  one  of  the  youngest  States, 
and  one  having  the  fewest  number  of  women  and  girls  depend- 
ing upon  a  daily  wage  for  their  sustenance,  took  a  short  cut 
through  the  wide  but  unknown  field  of  proposed  living  wage 
legislation,  and  enacted  a  minimum  wage  law  for  females. 

*Utah  was  the  first  State  to  put  a  Minimum  Wage  Law  for  Females 
into  effect. 


Preliminary  work  leading  to  the  preparation  and  presentation 
of  a  bill  for  the  enactment  of  a  minimum  wage  law  had  been 
performed  by  a  committee  of  the  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
of  our  State  and  the  bill  itself  was  presented  by  a  woman  mem- 
ber of  the  lower  house  of  the  Legislature,  of  whom  there  were 
three.  This  bill  followed  closely  the  provisions  of  the  bill  first 
presented  to  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  but  which  was  later 
much  amended  and  therefore  considerably  unlike  the  Bay 
State 's  minimum  wage  law  in  effect  today. 

The  Utah  bill  provided  for  a  commission,  as  have  bills  of 
all  other  States  having  minimum  wage  laws  now  in  force  or 
pending.  The  proposed  commission  was  to  have  been  composed 
of  three  persons,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Governor,  one  of  whom 
was  to  have  been  a  woman.  The  bill  carried  an  appropriation 
of  $5,000  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  commission  for  inquiring 
into  the  wages  paid  to  women  and  girl  employes  in  the  various 
occupations  in  which  they  were  engaged,  with  a  view  of  ascer- 
taining as  nearly  as  possible  the  adequacy  of  the  then  prevail- 
ing wages  to  supply  the  employes  with  the  necessary  cost  of 
living  and  to  maintain  them  in  health. 

The  commission  was  further  empowered  to  establish  a  wage 
board  consisting  of  three  representative  employers,  and  an 
equal  number  of  representative  women  employes,  and  one  or 
more  disinterested  persons  representing  the  public,  whose  duty 
it  was  to  determine  a  minimum  wage  for  women  in  occupations 
in  which  prevailing  wages  were  found  to  be  inadequate  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  a  living  wage  and  to  maintain  the  employes 
in  health. 

Merchants  and  manufacturers  were  quick  to  notice  this 


effort  for  proposed  legislation  affecting  their  several  interests 
and  equally  alert  in  protecting  such  interests.  Arrangements 
were  soon  perfected  for  joint  meetings  of  employers  and  em- 
ployes and  women's  club  representatives  with  the  labor  com- 
mittee of  the  lower  house.  The  merchants  and  manufacturers 
committee  of  the  local  commercial  club  strenuously  opposed  the 
bill  in  the  form  presented,  asserting  that  the  publicity  feature  in 
which  the  commission  was  authorized  to  publish  in  the  daily 
papers  the  names  of  employers  and  the  material  facts  of  their 
findings  through  searching  investigations  into  their  businesses, 
was  particularly  objectionable  and  unnecessary.  It  was  also 
maintained  by  them  that  the  proposed  investigating  machinery 
was  too  bulky  and  that  the  $5,000  that  was  proposed  to  be 
appropriated  was  insufficient  to  carry  on  the  work  in  the  manner 
outlined.  With  the  women  in  their  fight  for  the  enactment  of 
their  bill,  or  one  equally  as  good,  were  representatives  of  labor, 
and  lobbies  in  the  legislative  halls  were  formed  and  maintained 
by  the  contending  forces.  At  the  public  hearings  before  the 
house  labor  committee  able  and  exhaustive  arguments  were 
made  and  heard,  and  but  little  advancement  was  apparently 
made  for  some  time  toward  an  amicable  understanding  between 
the  participating  forces.  Finally  a  sub-committee  of  the  mer- 
chants' and  manufacturers'  committee  of  the  local  commercial 
club  drafted  a  bill  that  was  accepted  as  a  fairly  good  compro- 
mise between  themselves,  the  club  women  and  labor  representa- 
tives, and  a  substitute  bill  embracing  a  wage  scale  as  agreed 
upon  was  drafted  by  the  sub-committee,  which  was  later  pre- 
sented to  the  legislature  and  finally  passed  by  a  close  vote  in 
the  lower  house  and  unanimously  in  the  senate. 


The  original  bill  contained  over  1800  words,  and  the  substi- 
tute bill  about  200,  yet  the  latter  bill  was  such  that  it  prac- 
tically accomplishes  about  all  that  was  sought  to  be  secured 
through  the  more  verbose  and  cumbersome  measure. 

The  law  itself  fixes  a  minimum  wage  of  75  cents  per  day 
for  any  girl  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years ;  90  cents  per  day 
to  a  woman  over  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  who  is  inexperienced 
in  the  class  of  work  she  is  employed  to  perform ;  $1.25  per  day 
to  women  who  have  served  an  apprenticeship  in  the  line  of 
work  they  are  performing.  The  apprenticeship  period  is  fixed 
at  one  year.  Thus  a  woman  or  girl  who  has  worked  one  year 
as  a  saleswoman  must  be  paid  $1.2"5  per  day.  Likewise  she 
must  be  paid  as  much  as  if  she  has  worked  as  an  operator  in 
a  factory  of  any  kind,  in  a  candy  manufactory,  laundry,  etc., 
and  is  following  these  lines  of  employment. 

The  merchants  and  manufacturers  sub-committee's  bill 
gave  $1.00  per  day  to  apprentices  over  eighteen  years  of  age, 
but  the  house  committee  cut  the  wage  to  90  cents.  In  estab- 
lishments where  the  piece  system  of  wages  obtains  a  woman's 
wages  must  be  equal  to  the  wages  fixed  by  the  minimum  wage 
law,  based  on  a  nine-hour  per  day  service,  that  number  of 
hours  constituting  a  day's  work  for  women  in  our  State. 

One  of  the  objections  raised  by  the  house  committee  on 
labor  to  the  minimum  wage  bill,  as  first  presented,  was  to  the 
creation  of  a  new  State  commission,  and  hence  a  new  depart- 
ment. In  order  to  eliminate  this  strongly  opposed  feature  the 
substitute  bill  designated  the  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of 
Immigration,  Labor  and  Statistics  as  the  officer  to  enforce  the 
general  provisions  of  the  law.  This  department  was  already 


responsible  for  the  enforcement  of  the  nine-hour  law  for 
females,  the  eight-hour  law  for  miners,  and  besides  charged 
with  other  matters  pertaining  to  labor  and  immigration,  to- 
gether with  the  gathering,  compiling  and  publication  of  sta- 
tistics. Outside  of  the  fixed  salaries  of  the  commissioner,  two 
deputies  and  a  stenographer,  rent,  etc.  (Utah  not  having  a  State 
capitol  as  yet),  the  department  was  allowed  $1,500  per  year 
for  all  traveling,  printing,  stationery  and  other  incidental  ex- 
penses. As  the  appropriation  for  the  department  was  fixed 
before  the  passage  of  the  minimum  wage  law,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  only  sum  of  money  provided  by  the  legislature  for 
operating  its  minimum  wage  law  was  but  $800,  which  was 
named  in  an  amendment  to  the  old  act  creating  the  Bureau  of 
Immigration,  Labor  and  Statistics  as  the  salary  to  be  paid  an 
additional  deputy  in  the  department,  and  which  amendment 
stated  that  the  new  deputy  should  be  a  woman. 

Here  I  wish  to  say  that,  in  the  absence  of  any  knowledge 
by  this  convention  of  what  criticisms  may  have  been  made  or 
are  being  made  concerning  the  operations  of  the  law  in  Utah, 
I  think  the  members  of  the  convention  will  agree  with  me  that 
it  is  being  administered  economically  and  that  the  legislature 
made  a  "ten  strike"  in  its  efforts  to  economize  when  it  elim- 
inated a  $5,000  per  year  department  and  attached  the  proposed 
work  of  such  to  another  department  and  allowed  it  but  $800 
for  the  performance  of  the  required  work. 

The  provision  concerning  a  woman  deputy  was  another 
concession  to  the  women's  club  members,  who  contended  that 
in  the  investigations  of  alleged  violations  of  the  minimum  wage 
and  nine  hour  laws,  and  the  general  conditions  surrounding  the 


employment  of  labor,  a  woman  official  would  necessarily  prove 
a  helpful  acquisition  to  the  operating  forces  of  the  department. 
In  this  proposition  they  were  partially  right,  but  in  passing  it 
may  be  briefly  stated  at  this  point  that  in  the  handling  of  many 
cases  wherein  women  employers  were  violators  of  the  law 
enacted  for  the  benefit  of  women  wage  earners,  woman's  in- 
humanity to  woman  was  ofttimes  manifested  in  a  striking  man- 
ner through  their  incourteous  treatment  of  the  woman  deputy 
commissioner.  Many  women  employers  charged  with  violating 
the  law  stated  that  they  preferred  to  deal  with  a  man  when 
investigations  concerning  their  conduct  toward  their  own  sex 
were  under  consideration. 

The  most  stubborn  opposition  to  the  passage  of  the  measure 
came  particularly  from  a  representative  of  one  large  manufac- 
turing establishment  and  from  several  small  country  merchants. 
The  manufacturers'  representative  contended  that  in  the  line 
of  employment  which  his  concern  offered  to  girls  and  young 
women  there  were  certain  classes  of  work  requiring  but  little 
skill,  for  which  service  they  could  only  afford  to  pay  a  low  wage 
and  could  furthermore  give  employment  to  a  class  of  females 
who  possessed  but  meager  mentality  and  were  incapable  of 
performing  work  that  required  average  physical  capacity.  The 
argument  advanced  by  him  was  that  his  corporation  would 
necessarily  have  to  discharge  a  number  of  females  who  would 
probably  be  unable  to  secure  any  other  employment,  or  at  least 
such  employment  at  which  they  could  earn  as  much  as  he  was 
paying  them  in  the  establishment  which  he  represented.  Em- 
phasis was  placed  by  him  on  the  probability  of  such  employes 
becoming  a  permanent  burden  to  their  parents,  relatives  or 


friends,  who  would  necessarily  have  to  support  them,  or  else 
they  would  become  public  charges. 

The  small  country  merchants  set  up  the  claim  that  their 
businesses  did  not  warrant  their  paying  a  woman  more  than 
$20  or  $25  per  month,  and  in  order  for  them  to  maintain  female 
help  they  would  have  to  discharge  their  experienced  girls  and 
employ  only  those  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  or  one  older 
who  had  had  less  than  one  year 's  experience  as  a  sales  girl. 

The  practical  workings  of  the  law  are  yet  to  be  told. 

Briefly,  the  total  number  of  women  and  girls  in  Utah  com- 
ing under  the  operations  of  the  law  numbered  about  12,000. 
Of  the  total  number  only  about  6  per  cent  were  under  the  age 
of  eighteen  years,  and  were  employed  chiefly  as  errand  or 
bundle  girls  in  department  store®,  and  in  candy  factories,  box 
and  knitting  factories.  No  account  was  reckoned  of  the  girls 
and  women  who,  in  the  packing  season,  work  in  the  canneries, 
of  which  we  have  quite  a  number.  The  operating  period  of 
some  of  these  concerns  is  less  than  sixty  days,  and  they  employ 
quite  a  number  of  young  folks  of  both  sexes  during  that  time 
of  year  embracing  the  school  vacation  for  full  or  part  days. 
However,  their  rates  reach  the  minimum  wage  scale.  About 
10  per  cent  of  the  12,000  regular  female  employes  come  within 
the  inexperienced  or  apprentice  class,  and  the  remaining  84 
per  cent  in  the  experienced  class. 

A  month  prior  to  the  day  the  minimum  wage  law  became 
effective  our  department  sent  to  every  regular  employer  of 
female  labor  of  whom  it  had  any  knowledge  a  printed  copy  of 
the  law  and)  also  a  blank  calling  for  a  statement  of  the  number 
of  females  employed  by  them  who  were  under  eighteen  years 


of  age,  how  many  of  this  class  they  were  paying  less  than  75 
cents  per  day;  how  many  of  the  female  employes  over  the  age 
of  eighteen  years  were  inexperienced  and  how  many  were 
experienced,  and  how  many  of  these  two  classes  were  being 
paid  less  than  90  cents  and  $1.25  per  day  respectively.  They 
were  requested  to  fill  out  these  blanks  and  mail  same  to  the 
labor  department.  In  a  number  of  later  instances  these  blanks 
proved  quite  useful  to  us,  especially  in  cases  where  employers 
of  only  a  few  girls,  who  kept  no  pay  rolls  by  which  our  depart- 
ment might  check  their  weekly  wage  accounts,  and  who  had 
failed  to  adjust  their  wage  schedules  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  new  law.  The  same  employers  of  female  labor  were 
later  asked  to  fill  out  similar  blanks  bearing  a  date  subsequent 
to  the  law  becoming  effective,  and  from  this  information,  oft- 
times  unwittingly  written  upon  these  blanks,  we  discovered 
many  violations  of  the  law  for  which  the  employers  were 
obliged  to  pay  thousands  of  dollars  in  wages  that  fell  short  of 
being  the  minimum  wage,  or  else  defend  a  lawsuit  in  a  court 
of  justice. 

The  first  complaint  we  filed  was  one  against  an  establish- 
ment employing  about  twenty-five  young  women.  Two  weeks 
after  the  law  went  into  effect,  it  was  reported  to  the  depart- 
ment that  this  concern  was  not  paying  the  minimum  wage.  The 
commissioner  obtained  a  pay  envelope  from  one  of  the  girl 
employes  upon  which  was  written  her  name,  the  amount  of  her 
weekly  wage,  and  date  thereof,  which  was  $1  per  week  less 
than  that  provided  by  law.  The  commissioner  called  upon  the 
proprietor  of  this  establishment  and  requested  to  see  the  pay 
roll,  a  request  that  was  at  first  denied  until  the  law  requiring 


employers  to  submit  their  pay  rolls  for  inspection  was  pre- 
sented. This  pay  roll  showed  that  a  number  of  girls  were  being 
paid  less  than  the  minimum  wage,  yet  in  the  face  of  this  fact 
and  the  envelope  exhibited,  the  proprietor  and  the  bookkeeper 
claimed  that  the  establishment  was  paying  the  minimum  wage. 
The  proprietors  dared  not  face  a  trial  in  this  case,  and  a  plea 
of  guilty  was  entered  before  the  day  of  trial,  and  each  girl  who 
had  been  underpaid  was  handed  the  balance  legally  due  her. 

During  the  full  year  the  minimum  wage  law  has  been  in 
operation,  our  department  has  collected  from  employers  over 
$8,000,  which  was  given  into  the  hands  of  employes  who  were 
not  receiving  the  minimum  wage.  In  many  instances  the  em- 
ployers guilty  of  violating  the  law  did  so  unconsciously  or 
carelessly,  having  neglected  to  immediately  act  upon  the  notice 
sent  out  by  the  labor  department  and  adjust  their  pay  rolls  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  the  law.  One  large  department  store, 
employing  in  the  neighborhood  of  two  hundred  females,  and 
paying  semi-monthly,  was  found  guilty  of  violating  the  law  for 
the  reason  that  it  paid  its  girls  under  eighteen  years  of  age  but 
$9  (two  weeks'  wages)  on  the  first  and  sixteenth  days  of  each 
month,  computing  the  wage  on  twelve  months  a  year  basis, 
instead  of  at  fifty-two  weeks  a  year.  When  their  attention  was 
called  to  this  matter,  they  thanked  the  labor  department  and 
promptly  made  up  to  each  underpaid  employe  the  balance 
due  her. 

Quite  a  number  of  employers  apparently  acted  with  indif- 
ference to  the  warnings  of  the  labor  department,  evidently 
thinking  that  the  department  charged  with  the  enforcement  of 
the  law  had  enough  else  to  do  without  investigating  the  amount 


10 

of  wages  they  were  paying  their  help,  and  seeking  refuge 
behind  the  fact  that  the  underpaid  employe  well  knew  that  her 
job  was  at  stake  if  she  entered  a  complaint.  When  the  com- 
missioner or  deputy  commissioners  dropped  into  their  places  of 
business  to  question  them  or  their  employes,  or  examine  their 
pay  rolls,  ofttimes  being  possessed  in  advance  of  their  visits 
with  incriminating  facts  pertaining  to  the  wages  that  were 
being  paid  in  the  particular  establishment  under  investigation, 
many  unpleasant  scenes  occurred,  which  usually  ended  with  all 
concerned  getting  together,  computing  the  back  wages  due  the 
underpaid  employes,  to  whom  a  substantial  sum  of  money  was 
turned  over,  and  a  promise  on  the  part  of  the  employer  to 
observe  the  law  in  the  future,  followed  by  a  formal  and  appar- 
ently friendly  farewell.  The  highest  individual  sum  of  money 
which  our  department  (has  as  yet  collected  in  this  manner  for 
one  girl  is  $125,  but  several  amounts  approaching  that  sum 
have  been  obtained. 

The  law  does  not  designate  our  department  as  a  collection 
agency,  but  we  assumed  that  for  the  reason  that  the  law  was 
intended  to  obtain  better  pay  for  girls  who  were  drawing  wages 
insufficient  to  meet  their  necessary  living  requirements,  we 
would  be  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  the  law  if  we  placed  into 
their  hands  good  hard  cash,  rather  than  summon  them  to  appear 
in  court  as  reluctant  witnesses  against  their  employers,  and,  in 
most  cases,  lose  them  their  jobs,  after  which  they  would  be 
required  to  bring  a  civil  action  to  collect  the  legal  wages  due 
them,  and  if  successful  would  be  obliged  to  turn  over  nearly  all 
that  had  been  collected  to  some  attorney  for  his  services  in 
the  case. 


11 

A  wise  business  man  is  a  respecter  of  public  opinion,  and 
therefore  few  of  such  care  to  antagonize  a  law  established  for 
the  payment  of  a  fair  wage  to  men  or  women.  Some  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  will  tell  the  commissioner  of  labor 
that  they  believe  the  minimum  wage  law  to  be  unconstitutional, 
and  that  it  is  too  arbitrary;  that  it  denies  to  some  girls  and 
women  the  employment  that  they  are  very  much  in  need  ol,  but 
they  lack  the  moral  courage  to  thus  speak  or  publish  such  views 
to  the  world,  and  draw  unto  themselves  the  odium  that  the 
laboring  classes  feel  for  the  employers  opposed  to  laws  intended 
for  the  betterment  of  wage  earners.  Hence  our  department 
has  had  to  bring  but  seven  cases  for  the  violation  of  the  min- 
imum wage  law  before  the  courts,  six  of  which  we  have  won 
and  one  is  still  pending.  A  case  won  has  been  appealed  to  the 
Supreme  Court.  This  was  a  matter  wherein  a  woman  pro- 
prietor of  a  dressmaking  establishment  was  paying  an  appren- 
tice but  $5  a  week,  the  minimum  wage  being  $5.40.  The  ap- 
prentice had  been  employed  but  three  weeks  and  her  employer 
was  offered  the  privilege  of  paying  the  $1.20  due  the  appren- 
tice under  the  minimum  wage  law,  or  else  face  a  prosecution. 
She  elected  to  fight,  but  after  an  action  was  instituted  against 
her  for  her  violation  of  the  law,  an  attorney  advised  her  to  pay 
to  the  apprentice  the  $1.20  due,  which  she  did  and  then  asked 
that  the  suit  be  withdrawn.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  she 
slammed  the  door  of  her  establishment  in  the  face  of  the  deputy 
commissioner  and  hung  up  the  telephone  receiver  when  the 
county  attorney  was  advising  her  to  pay  the  apprentice  and 
thus  avoid  prosecution,  the  forces  charged  with  the  enforce- 
ment, prosecution  and  dignity  of  the  law  elected  to  allow  the 


12 

woman  the  opportunity  of  fighting  until  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State  called  "time."  Thus  the  constitutionality  of  our 
little  minimum  wage  law  is  to  be  tested,  and  others  besides  the 
lady  have  quietly  chipped  in  to  help  defray  the  expense  of  the 
legal  scrap.  One  contributor  is  a  man  whom  we  had  pre- 
viously convicted  of  violating  the  law. 

Summarizing  its  practical  effects  within  the  brief  period 
it  has  been  in  operation,  the  law  may  be  said  to  have  been 
instrumental  in  raising  the  wages  of  a  number  of  women  and 
girls  who  most  needed  the  additional  sums  of  money  it  has 
placed  in  their  hands.  It  has  not  increased  the  wage  pay  roll 
in  establishments  employing  any  considerable  number  of  women 
over  5  per  cent.  As  an  offset  to  this,  most  employers  admit 
that  they  have  obtained  increased  efficiency,  because  proprietors 
or  managers  of  many  establishments  employing  a  large  number 
of  female  workers  immediately  preceding  the  date  of  this  law 
becoming  effective  made  the  occasion  an  opportunity  for  heart- 
to-heart  talks  with  their  female  employes,  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that  it  would  be  up  to  them  (the  employes)  to  make  good  in 
order  to  hold  their  positions.  This  presentation  of  the  situa- 
tion is;  alleged  to  have  had  a  leavenous  effect  upon  quite  a  few 
deficient  employes  who  are  now  drawing  more  than  the  mini- 
mum wage.  A  few  small  country  merchants  claim  to  have 
been  hard  hit,  and  some  formerly  employing  two  girls  now  have 
but  one.  A  very  small  number  of  women  and  girls  who  failed 
to  produce  the  results  fixed  as  necessary  were  dismissed  from 
establishments,  but  most  of  them  found  other  work  for  which 
they  were  better  adapted,  and  consequently  we  can  recall  but 
few  cases  where  a  woman  or  girl  has  been  utterly  deprived  of 


13 

employment  because  of  this  law.  |En  several  cases  where 
girls  have  been  discharged  because  of  the  activities  of  our  de- 
partment in  compelling  employers  to  pay  the  minimum  wage, 
we  have  found  positions  that  were  satisfactory  to  them. 

And  here,  let  me  say,  we  have  found  among  the  business 
men  of  Utah  many  whole-souled,  broad-minded  and  philan- 
thropic fellows,  who  have  stood  ever  ready  to  aid  our  depart- 
ment and  assist  us  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law  by  giving 
employment  to  the  girl  or  woman  who  had  been  unkindly  and 
unceremoniously  discharged  because  of  our  insistence  that  she 
be  paid  the  minimum  wage  and  all  back  wages  due  her,  or 
because  she  had  given  or  was  willing  to  give,  at  the  sacrifice 
of  her  job,  incriminating  evidence  against  her  employer.  Our 
progress  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law  would  often  have  been 
impeded  had  it  not  been  for  the  co-operation  of  the  men  thus 
referred  to. 

One  very  important  thing  the  law  appears  to  have  not  done, 
as  was  feared,  and  that  is  that  it  has  not  caused  the  minimum 
wage  to  become  very  nearly  the  maximum  wage.  Of  the  12,000 
women  wage  earners  in  our  State  coming  under  the  provisions 
of  this  law,  we  have  not  been  able  to  find  one  woman  or  girl 
who  was  drawing  $7.50  per  week  at  the  time  the  law  went  into 
effect  whose  wages  have  suffered  a  decrease.  The  fear  of  some 
such  action  as  this,  by  way  of  retaliation,  was  and  has  been 
often  voiced  prior  and  subsequent  to  the  operations  of  this  law, 
but  the  fear  in  our  State  appears  to  have  been  ill-founded.  The 
situation  now  is  that  a  much  larger  number  of  employes  in 
Utah  are  drawing  a  wage  in  excess  of  the  highest  minimum 
wage  than  those  who  are  paid  the  legal  wage  itself. 


14 

Another  beneficial  effect  for  the  manufacturer  is  that  it 
tends  to  equalize  the  cost  of  production,  and  the  same  deduction 
applies  to  the  merchants,  as  the  minimum  wage  will  also  in 
his  case  contribute  to  the  equality  in  the  cost  of  selling  goods. 
The  hard-fisted  manufacturer  or  merchant  who  was  inclined  to 
purchase  his  labor  for  the  cheapest  price  obtainable  is  now 
compelled  by  law  to  pay  for  labor  about  the  same  price  that  the 
more  liberal  and  considerate  employer  is  inclined  to  pay  vol- 
untarily. 

I  believe  that  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  90  per  cent  of 
employers  of  women  and  girls  are  well  satisfied  with  the  law  as 
it  now  stands  and  is  enforced.  Of  course  employes  whose 
wages  it  has  raised  are  satisfied,  and  hope  soon  to  see  the 
minimum  wage  made  higher.  The  women  who  are  responsible 
for  the  enactment  of  the  law  feel  that  they  have  accomplished 
a  great  good  for  their  sex,  and  no  member  of  the  legislature  who 
voted  for  the  law  is  apologizing  to  his  constituents  for  his 
action. 

An  intelligent  manager  of  one  of  Salt  Lake 's  largest  depart- 
ment stores,  who  was  chairman  of  the  sub-committee  that 
drafted  the  minimum  wage  law  as  it  appears  today,  in  a  paper 
read  before  a  national  convention  of  merchants,  recently  held  in 
one  of  the  eastern  States,  says  of  the  law :  "  *  *  *  What- 
ever its  faults  or  virtues,  there  is  little  doubt  that  good  has  been 
uppermost.  Without  discussing  its  legal,  moral,  economic  or 
industrial  bearings,  I  might  venture  the  suggestion  that  of  far 
greater  importance  than  minimum  wage  legislation  for  the 
uplift  of  women  workers  is  preparatory  education  which  oper- 
ates automatically  to  raise  the  standard  of  wages  in  ratio  to  the 


15 

standard  of  service.  It  would  seem  fair  that  if  the  State  estab- 
lishes a  standard  of  wage  it  should  assume  the  responsibility  of 
furnishing  service  of  equal  value.  Then  it  must  follow  that  the 
greatest  material  service  we  can  render  the  future  women  and 
girl  workers  is  to  prearrange  such  environment  and  education 
as  will  give  them  individual  independence,  self-supporting  pro- 
ducing power.  We  must  care  better  for  our  womanhood  before 
it  is  thrown  into  the  thick  of  the  fight  for  existence  and  com- 
pelled to  call  to  the  State  for  minimum  wage  protection.  "We 
should  now  know  that  we  are  in  a  period  of  change,  humanizing 
change,  and  that  along  with  the  development  of  industrial  in- 
stitutions and  processes  has  come  a  new  world-wide  sub  con- 
sciousness, which  pleads  the  necessity  of  a  fairer  distribution 
of  the  products  of  labor,  the  uplift  of  the  laborer,  the  better 
development  and  conservation  of  the  mental  and  physical 
forces,  a  more  humane  and  scientific  application  of  productive 
human  energy.  The  minimum  wage  helps,  but  let  us  first  help 
the  women  to  know ;  she  is  then  a  law  unto  herself. ' ' 


16 

Minimum  Wage  Scale  for  Females 


(Chap.  63,  Session  Laws  of  Utah,  1913.) 

SECTION  1.  UNLAWFUL  TO  PAY  LESS  THAN  SCALE.  It  shall  be 
unlawful  for  any  regular  employer  of  female  workers  in  the  State 
of  Utah  to  pay  any  woman  (female)  less  than  the  wage  in  this 
section  specified,  to- wit: 

For  minors,  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  not  less  than 
seventy-five  cents  per  day;  for  adult  learners  and  apprentices  not 
less  than  ninety  cents  per  day;  provided,  that  the  learning  period 
or  apprenticeship  shall  not  extend  for  more  than  one  year;  for 
adults  who  are  experienced  in  the  work  they  are  employed  to  per- 
form, not  less  than  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  day, 

SEC.  2.  CERTIFICATE  OF  APPRENTICESHIP.  All  regular  em- 
ployers of  female  workers  shall  give  a  certificate  of  apprenticeship 
for  time  served  to  all  apprentices. 

SEC.  3.  PENALTY.  Any  regular  employer  of  female  workers 
who  shall  pay  to  any  woman  (female)  less  than  the  wage  specified 
in  Section  1  of  this  Act  shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor. 

SEC.  4.  COMMISSIONER  OF  IMMIGRATION,  LABOR  AND  STATISTICS 
TO  ENFORCE  ACT.  The  Commissioner  of  Immigration,  Labor  and 
Statistics  shall  have  general  charge  of  the  enforcement  of  this  Act, 
but  violations  of  the  same  shall  be  prosecuted  by  all  the  city,  State 
and  county  prosecuting  officers  in  the  same  manner  as  in  other 
cases  of  misdemeanor. 

Approved  March  18th,  1913. 


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